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Radio. Where from, to and what could hav been…. Introduction Broadcasting: scattering of seed broadly from a central point Accidental home made invention, unreliable that improved with technological advancements Went from hobby to infiltration of family home. The great hopes for radio
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Radio Where from, to and what could hav been…
Introduction • Broadcasting: scattering of seed broadly from a central point • Accidental home made invention, unreliable that improved with technological advancements • Went from hobby to infiltration of family home
The great hopes for radio • To unify (like telegraph) beyond geography • Personify power - presidential speeches into homes (US) would strengthen nation, King’s addresses (Australian) would strengthen empire • Promote social cohesion to keep families together
First impressions • Static that often interrupted transmissions: • proof of God’s universal power • linked to the occult, death • ocean metaphor in tales of male heroics / shipboard wireless operators who saved people on sinking ships • first genderfication of early radio • Pitch to boys and young men • experimental, scientific, good hobby to take up; keeps them at home and off the street • term ‘boy in the attic’ used favourably – positioned radio in the home, upstairs
Pitch to housewives • Consequences of broadcasting companies realising they must sell to the distracted listener housewife: • Retailers redesign showrooms like middle-class living rooms • Shift from headphone sets to built in loudspeakers: ‘women wouldn’t tolerate headphones spoiling their hairstyles (RCA exec) • Programs simple: her ‘attention would be likely to be divided’ (industry exec), she doesn’t have ‘much imagination’ (early radio ad exec) • .
Australia’s response • Following US trend of marketing to women: 2GB, 1940, launches new programs as constant companion for housewife in her daily chores. • Strict scheduling of programs: listeners change family life, especially at night, according to their favourite shows • Consciousness of time • Reminders of time repeated ‘harnessing of the ether’ • Leisure structured according to regulated time slots
Fantasy community • Techniques developed by broadcasters to create actuality: • Perceiving lister as ‘privileged eavesdropper’ • Give listener a position to draw them into the program (‘chums’, Philip Adams today’s use of ‘dear listener’) • Listener till a passive participant • One way transmitter
Potential not realised • Community participation (Johnson) • Can’t be just ‘prettyfying public life’ (Brecht) • Should step out of the ‘supply business’ and organise its listeners as suppliers (Brecht).
